9-Axis MEMS IMU Technology and Patent Infringement Risk Analysis

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9-Axis MEMS IMU Technology and Patent

Infringement Risk Analysis

STMicroelectronics LSM9DS0 / Bosch Sensortec BMX055 / InvenSense MPU-9250

2405 route des Dolines, 06902 Sophia Antipolis, FranceTel: +33 489 89 16 20

Web: http://www.knowmade.com

21 rue La Nouë Bras de Fer, 44200 Nantes, FranceTel: +33 240 18 09 16

Web: http://www.systemplus.fr


Knowmade has developed methodologies to identify patents related to product features.By combining their technical knowledge, process flow understanding and patent search, System Plus

Consulting and Knowmade are able to provide a clear link between patents and marketed products. In-depth analysis of the links between technology and patents provided in this report will lead to

understanding product features and related patents, and to highlight the potential risks of patentinfringement.

A New Type of Report

Reverse Engineering and Process Analysis

Patent Search and Infringement Risk Analysis

Knowmade & System Plus ConsultingNew Reports

• Teardown & Reverse engineering • Technology and manufacturing analysis•Patent search• Link between technology and patent• Evidence of use•Risks of patent infringement• Full searchable patent database

For the first time, Knowmade (specialized in patent analysis) and System Plus Consulting (specialized in reverseengineering and reverse costing) are joining their unique added value in order to combined technology andmanufacturing analysis with patent claims understanding in order to highlight the risks of patent infringement.


The Authors

• Headquartered in Sophia Antipolis, France, Knowmade is specialized in analysis of patents and scientific research findings. Weprovide patent search, IP landscape, patent valuation, IP due diligence, freedom-to-operate, IP competition analysis, scientificliterature landscape, scientific state of the art, technology scouting, technology transfer, alerts and updates. Our service offerconsists of custom studies, analysis reports, on-demand tracking and strategy consulting. Knowmade combines informationsearch services, scientific expertise, powerful analytics and visualization tools, and proprietary methodologies for analyzingpatents and scientific information. With a solid focus on Microelectronics, Compound Semiconductors, LED, MEMS,Nanotechnology and Biotechnology, Knowmade supports research laboratories, industrial companies and investors in theirbusiness development.

• Headquartered in Nantes, France, System Plus Consulting is specialized in technology and cost analysis of electroniccomponents and systems in the fields of Integrated Circuits, Power Devices and Modules, MEMS & Sensors, LED, ImageSensors, Packaging including wafer level, Electronic Boards and Systems. The company offers custom reverse costing analyses,standard reverse costing reports and costing tools. These analyses are used by Purchasing Departments to measure theirsuppliers’ cost structure, R&D Departments to confirm technological choices depending on their impact on costs,and Benchmarking/Marketing Departments to monitor the products on the market.

Disclaimer: Knowmade and System Plus Consulting are research firms that provide technical analysis and opinions. They do notprovide any insight analyses or counsel regarding legal aspects or the validity of any individual patent. The research, technicalanalysis and/or work contained herein is not a legal opinion and should not be construed as such.


Table of Contents

Introduction P2• Scope of The Study P5• Key Features of the Report P7• Objective of the Report P8• Terminology for Patent Analysis P9• Methodology P11

Product Presentation P12

Executive Summary P16

Teardown: Technology Comparison P26• MEMS Gyro & Accelerometer Structure P27• MEMS Gyro & Accelerometer Sensing Area P28• MEMS Gyro & Accelerometer Cap Sealing P30• MEMS Gyro & Accelerometer Micromachining Process P31

Patent Analysis: Risk of Patent Infringement P32• Matrix Product Features/Patent Portfolio P33• Al-Ge Eutectic Bonding Process P35

> Patent Identification P36- Bosch BMX055 P36- InvenSense MPU-9250 P37- ST LSM9DS0 P38

> Patent Application Timeline P39> Patent Infringement Risk P40

- Bosch BMX055 vs InvenSense patents P40- InvenSense MPU-9250 vs Bosch patents P42

> IP Competitors P44• Accelero/Gyro on a Single Chip P45

> Patent Identification P46- InvenSense MPU-9250 P46- ST LSM9DS0 P47- Bosch BMX055 P48

> Patent Application Timeline P49

> Patent Infringement Risk P50- ST LSM9DS0 vs Bosch & InvenSense patents P50- InvenSense MPU-9250 vs Bosch patents P52

> IP Competitors P54• 3-Axis Gyroscope Single Structure P55

> Patent Identification P56- InvenSense MPU- 9250 P56- ST LSM9DS0 P57- Bosch BMX055 P58


- ST LSM9DS0 vs InvenSense patents P60- InvenSense MPU-9250 vs ST patents P63

> Main IP Competitors P65• Hybrid MEMS P66

> Patent Identification P67- InvenSense MPU- 9250 P67- Bosch BMX055 P68- ST LSM9DS0 P69


- InvenSense MPU-9250 vs Bosch patents P71> Main IP Competitors P73

• SiN as Protective Layer (Micromachined layers) P74> Patent Identification P75

- ST LSM9DS0 P75- Bosch BMX055 P76- InvenSense MPU- 9250 P77


- ST LSM9DS0 vs Bosch patents P79

Conclusion P81• Conclusions P82• Summary of Patent Infringement Risks P83


Scope of the Study (1/2)

• This report provides a technology and patent infringement risk analysis of the newest 9-AxisMEMS IMU supplied by STMicroelectronics, Bosch Sensortec and InvenSense.

• This report does not provide detailed claim charts and legal opinions regarding patentinfringements. The risks of patent infringement highlighted in this report require more in-depth legal assessments to be confirmed.

STMicroelectronicsLSM9DS0

Bosch SensortecBMX055

InvenSenseMPU-9250

The comparative study is focused on following product featuresBonding Process: Al-Ge Eutectic Bonding.Accelero/Gyro on a Single Chip: Multiple sealed cavities with different pressures.Sensing Area: Gyro Single Structure.Hybrid MEMS: Vertically integrated electronics and wafer-scale hermetic packaging.Micromachined layers: Silicon Nitride as protective layer.


Scope of the Study (2/2)

Motion sensing combo sensor is a very hot topic, both in term of market potential and competition among the players. Thegrowth of the applications of 6 and 9 degrees of freedom (DoF) devices is both pushing the leaders (STMicroelectronics, BoschSensortec and Invensense) and their challengers (AKM, Kionix, mCube, Freescale, Alps, Kionix… just to name a few) to developinnovative technical and manufacturing solutions, and, in parallel of course, to have the right patents to protect their inventions.But what are the similarities and the differences in term of technical and manufacturing choices at the devices level and what isthe related patent situation?

This report highlight the risks of patent infringement between STMicroelectronics, Bosch Sensortec and Invensense in the fieldof 9 axis MEMS inertial measurement units (IMU). As the 9 axis IMUs are just starting to be adopted by the market, it is theright time now to understand what could happen between these 3 companies and how to differentiate patents and claimscompared to the leaders.

2012 was seen by many as a turnkey year for consumer combo sensors (6 and 9 axis sensors). Since then, many developmentshave occurred, and the market acceptance of combo solutions has been extremely quick. According to Yole Développement, thecombo sensor market is estimated to be $446M in 2013, growing to $1.97B in 2018. This represents 21% of the global inertialconsumer market in 2013, and will grow to an impressive 66% by 2018. In this playground, STMicroelectronics, Bosch Sensortecand InvenSense are the 3 market leaders in the inertial consumer sensors with more than 50% of market share.In a patent infringement action, the potential sales volume plays a major role for assessing the damage award. Moreover, thereexists a history of patent disputes between these 3 leading players.

The LSM9DS0, BMX055 and MPU-9250 are the newest 9-axis MEMS IMU from STMicroelectronics, Bosch Sensortec andInvenSense respectively. These devices contain a 3-axis gyroscope, a 3-axis accelerometer and a 3-axis magnetometer.

This report is focused on some aspects presenting similar features between the 3 selected products and revealed by the reverseengineering performed by System Plus Consulting. These product features are mainly related to accelero/gyro die and they arenot related to the magnetometer or the ASIC.


Key Features of the Report

This report provides a deep insight on technology data and manufacturing processes (teardown analysis) ofLSM9DS0, BMX055 and MPU-9250 9-axis IMU components, and comparative studies of product features(similarities & differences).

It provides patents related to the target product features and held by STMicroelectronics, Bosch Sensortecand InvenSense.

It provides discussions on the potential patent infringement risks by comparing relevant patent claimelements to the target product features and manufacturing processes.

This report also provides an extensive Excel database with all patents analyzed in this study (60+ patentfamilies composed of 200+ patents). This database allows multi-criteria searches:

- Patent publication number- Hyperlinks to the original documents- Priority date- Title- Abstract- Patent Assignees- Legal status of the patent

Disclaimer: This report does not provide any insight analyses or counsel regarding legal aspects or thevalidity of any individual patent. Knowmade and System Plus Consulting are research firms that providetechnical analysis and opinions. The research, technical analysis and/or work contained herein is not a legalopinion and should not be construed as such.


Objectives of the Report

• Provide an overview of technology data and manufacturing process of LSM9DS0, BMX055and MPU-9250 9-axis IMU components supplied by STMicroelectronics, Bosch Sensortec andInvenSense respectively.

• Find the technical and manufacturing process similarities and differences of LSM9DS0,BMX055 and MPU-9250 9-axis IMU components .

• Identify key patents held by STMicroelectronics, Bosch Sensortec and InvenSense, andrelated to the target product features and manufacturing processes.

• Find the link between patented technological solutions and marketed products.

• Identify the potential infringing parties, and help to find evidence of use.

• Identify potential risks of patent infringement, and identify the patents which require a more in depth legal assessment.


• Package is analyzed and measured.

• The dies are extracted in order to get overall data: dimensions, main blocks, padnumber and pin out, die marking.

• Setup of the manufacturing process.

• Patents are extracted from Questel-Orbit worldwide patent database by usingkeyword-based queries.

• The selection of relevant patents is done manually by expert review of thesubject-matter of inventions.

• The patents are manually categorized regarding the selected product features.

• The similarities and differences of target of products are identified (productfeatures and manufacturing processes).

• A set of product features and manufacturing processes is selected regardingtheir interest in terms of IP study.

• The links between the patented technologies and the target product featuresare established.

• The potential infringing parties of the target product are identified, and thepotential risks of patent infringements are discussed.

Methodology

Patent Search

Infringement Risks

Teardown Analysis

Comparative Study


MEMS Gyro & Accelerometer Structure

COMPANY 1

COMPANY 2

COMPANY 3

Product 1

Product 2

Product 3


MEMS Gyro & Accelerometer Sensing Area

COMPANY 1 COMPANY 2 COMPANY 3

Product 1 Product 2 Product 3


Matrix Product Features/Patent Portfolio


Al-Ge BondingPatent Identification

Company X


Al-Ge BondingPatent Application Timeline

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Note: The data corresponding to the years 2012-2014 may not be complete since a significant number ofpatent applications filed during these years might not have been published yet.

Earliest application date of the patent familyXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

DEXXXXXXXXXXXWO, EP (granted), TW

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DEXXXXXXXXXXXEP, US

Relevant patent family

Related patent family

USXXXXXX (granted)WO, EP, KR (granted), CN, US (granted) XXXXXXXX (granted)

XXXXXXXX (granted)XXXXXXXX (granted)

XXXXXXXXX (granted)

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DEXXXXXXXXXXXXX

XXXXXXX (granted)USXXXXXXXXXX

USXXXXXX (granted)

USXXXXXX (granted)

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Knowmade, 2014

Company A

Company B


Multiple cavities with different pressuresPatent Infringement Risk

15


Multiple cavities with different pressuresPatent Infringement Risk

Product 1 Intellectual Property (IP) rightshighly likelyinfringement

Company 1 Company 2


Multiple cavities with different pressuresMain IP Competitors


Summary of Patent Infringement Risks

Product A

Hybrid MEMS(CMOS-MEMS)

SiN protective layers(Micromachined Layers)

Multiple Cavities(Accelero/Gyro

Single Chip)

Multiple Cavities(Accelero/Gyro

Single Chip)

Al-Ge Bonding(Sealing Process)

Gyro Single Structure(Sensing Area)

Gyro Single Structure(Sensing Area)

Al-Ge Bonding(Sealing Process)

Unlikelyinfringement

Likelyinfringement

Highly likelyinfringement

Potential risk of patent infringement

Knowmade, 2014

Company A

Patents A

Product B

Company B

Patents B

Product C

Company CPatents C


Excel Patent Database with all patents analyzed in the report

More than 60 patent families composed of more than 200 patents.This database allows multi-criteria searches and includes patent publication number, hyperlinks to theoriginal documents, priority date, title, abstract, patent assignees, legal status for each member of thepatent family.

9-Axis MEMS IMU Technology and Patent Infringement Risk Analysis

Documents

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